Battlefield: 1942

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Take part in the wing, wheel, wind and willpower battle of WWII.

By IGN Staff

Stephen "Cheeks" Butts was the man in charge of reviewing Codename Eagle for the PC, a first person shooter that put you in the belly of tanks, in the lap of dogfighters, and on the soles of your aching feet in an alternate history involving a 1920s Russian conquest of Europe. While he liked it, and enjoyed the concepts behind the game, he ultimately felt that the mixture of gameplay styles just didn't come together.

What's that got to do with Battlefield: 1942? Both games come from European bigwig Digital Illusions, and one is the natural progression of the other. Battlefield may not be a sequel in technicalities, but it certainly is in spirit. Where Eagle had you living out a fantastical reworking of WWI, Battlefield will take you into the real events that shaped WWII. Before you finish your adventure, you'll fight on foot on the beaches of Iwo Jima, fly a bomber, or take a take out to defend Stalingrad. Taking the concepts of a truly interactive first-person shooter even farther, Battlefield promises to put you in over 50 missions in the single player mode, over campaigns ranging from North Africa and the Pacific to Western and Eastern Europe. You'll be involved in a large storyline, one that will take you all over the world, in a variety of vehicles, all controlled in familiar first person style.

How does this differ from EA's other WWII shooter, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault? Medal of Honor is a "technical" shooter in the WWII world, but it keeps the action squarely in the world of toes. Battlefield is trying to give you a wide variety of experiences that encompass the war, from dogfights and huge battles between metal machinery in the air and on the sea, to the man-to-man horrors of trying to survive on foot. The engine has been designed to support both indoor and outdoor environments, which is vital in order to pull off some of the plans that the developers have for the game. While we haven't seen the game in action, we'll take a leap and assume that some of the wonkyness of using an FPS engine to drive and fly vehicles has been worked out, allowing you to truly run from a shielded shelter to a dogfighter, then land to pilot a tank. Vehicles are definitely the focus of Digital Illusions (you know you loved Rallisport Challenge), so we'll see more than 35 real WWII vehicles --both Allied and Axis-- under your control in Battlefield.

The PC version of the game will support standard Deathmatch and limited Deathmatch modes, as well as Capture the Flag games, and the Xbox version will no doubt feature an extensive multiplayer game as well. But what about online? Like all broadband plans, this one is kept under wraps. In the case of 1942, its release will be timed within the launch of Xbox's broadband capabilities, but that may not mean anything at all.

More importantly, the game itself is designed for extensive team use, which begs for the broadband treatment. Taking a page from games like Team Fortress, Battlefield also differs from other historical shooters by allowing you to assume roles while you play through the game. Infantry will give you access to a wide range of weapons, while medics can help out other soldiers in the field. Snipers, spies and the like will all be under your control for major battles. The PC version promises up to 64 people online, and hopefully the Xbox version will promote similar numbers. Like the initial promises of games like Halo, you'll also be able to take vehicles under team control as well, everything from tanks to missile trucks to full on battleships that require multiple teammates to control.

If everything goes according to plan, you'll be able to take part in a multitude of moments in the war, from flying over the tiny islands of the Pacific to taking a tank over the sandy dunes of Africa. With Codename Eagle as a leaping point, Digital Illusions has nowhere to go but up.